In typical high speed photofinishing systems, a plurality of individual film orders are spliced together and passed through a photographic printer wherein images are serially printed onto a web of photographic paper. The web of photographic paper is then wound onto a large roll and is taken to a chemical processor where the exposed web of photographic paper is developed. Thereafter, the web of paper is further processed by separating the individual images into customer orders and collating them with the original strip of negative film that was used to print the images. During the printing process, perforation marks are made in the paper and are used to identify the location of individual images. Typically, a notch is placed between adjacent images. A second perforation/notch is placed between successive customer orders, thus allowing for easy identification between successive customer orders. The current notching process causes many difficulties. First, with regard to the printer, the multitude of notches/perforations that are formed in the photographic paper creates a lot of dust within the printer which tends to make parts wear quicker and can also substantially effect the overall quality of the images being printed. Additionally, since perforations are used both to distinguish between individual images and successive customer orders, perforations are placed on both edges of the photographic paper. Thus, it is necessary to provide an appropriate mechanism for repositioning of the notching mechanism to accommodate various size papers within the printer.
Current photographic printers today have also been limited with respect to the amount of information that can be placed on the print. Often, print program information or information read from the negative film is visually imprinted onto the print, for example, the date, customer order, name, etc. Typically, it has been not possible to provide information such as exposure settings used to make the print, or providing instructional information as to what should be done to the photographic paper at some later photofinishing processing section or station.
Applicants have invented an improved method and system which overcomes the problems of the prior art.
Briefly, the present invention provides a method and apparatus which includes providing a photographic paper having a magnetic recording media upon which magnetically encoded information may be written which can provide processing information, for example, information relating to the size, type, and location of the image for each customer order. Additional information can also be provided with respect to other operations to be performed on the web, additional customer information regarding the images, or information regarding how the print was formed, for example, print exposure information. A magnetic recording head is provided in the printer at a predetermined position after the image has been printed on a photographic web. Information can be written onto the magnetic media provided on the web, which is later read by an appropriate reader and used to cut the individual images from the web, or perform some other operation thereon. In addition, as previously discussed, the write head can provide information relating to the print exposure or other information.